While Valve says they are not working on a platform of their own, they do seem to want to promote an open platform for both the living-room and mobile space. It would now seem that Valve is developing this “open platform” to be a blueprint for manufacturers in both the living-room and mobile space.

Moving in this direction would eliminate the problems of proprietary hardware; but it is unknown if manufacturers would actually view this as a good thing or not. It seems to us that eliminating the hardware uniqueness could lead to fewer differences between manufacturers and lessen the amount of innovation on the platforms.

Valve does not see it this way, but they have yet to make a final decision of the design of the hardware or what role Valve would play in these open platform standards. Valve does continue to say that work in this area does not signal that the company is getting into the hardware business.

DICE has finally dropped the major update that has been coming for Xbox 360 and PC owners that features the release of Back to Karkand. PlayStation 3 owners already received the update last week. It is a large patch that includes Back to Karkand, and that checks in at a little over 2GB to download.

Battlefield 3 owners who purchased the “Limited Edition” version of the title will gain access to Back to Karkand, which features new reimagined maps from Battlefield 2 for free. Otherwise, you will be stuck paying $15 or 1,200 Microsoft Points to get access to these additional maps. Of course, you still get the patch for free.

An additional Map Pack is said to be on the horizon for Battlefield 3, but details are still sketchy as to what DICE might be planning for its next DLC offering.

HBO has decided to open up its HBO Go streaming service to other platforms beyond the computer. HBO Subscribers will be able to take advantage of the on-demand streaming service on gaming consoles as well other devices, perhaps Blu-ray players or streaming media devices such as the Roku.

While no specific deals were announced as far as which consoles or what other devices might be able to access the HBO Go streaming service, additional details are expected to be coming soon which will fill in the blanks. Currently, HBO subscribers do not pay extra for access to the HBO Go service; but it is unclear if that access will continue.

We suspect that a “plus” version is likely for those who are not already subscribing to HBO or who want the additional features. No pricing was announced or a date for this to start rolling out to other devices, but we expect to see some of this happen before the end of the year. Stay tuned for more details.